ICE raids NW OKC home linked to human smuggling ring

The federal government is investigating an illegal human smuggling operation with connections in the metro. ICE agents located a home in Northwest Oklahoma City owned by the leader of the operation, conducting a raid on the home last week looking for eight undocumented people.

The search warrant for the home is sealed but an indictment filed in the Northern District of Oklahoma detailed the human trafficking operation. Those involved allegedly profited by smuggling undocumented people across the Mexico border into the United States, including Oklahoma.

Neighborhood Reaction

“And it’s at our doorstep,” said a neighbor.

A neighbor who does not want to show her face or use her name said ICE agents raided the home two doors down from her last week.

“It was kind of unnerving and on the scary side,” said the neighbor. 

She said the mother and children living at the home near Northwest 122nd and Council moved there two weeks ago from out of state.

“Oh, that just broke my heart,” said the neighbor. “Made me so sick.”

She has not seen the woman and her children since the raid, and no one answered the door when News 9 went by. The neighbor said the previous tenants left months before, leaving behind an SUV parked in a cul-de-sac. The neighbor believes the previous residents were the target of the raid, not the new family.

“For agencies that are supposed to be surveilling the other people so closely that they didn’t know they had been gone,” said the neighbor. 

Federal Indictment Details

The federal indictment named eight Guatemalan nationals involved in what the feds called "The Lima Lopez transnational criminal organization." Court documents said the suspects were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by undocumented people to smuggle them into the U.S. over a four-year period. County assessor records confirmed the leader of the illegal operation owns the home where the raid took place. 

“For the raid to happen, and find out there was some funny business going on there is really unnerving,” said the neighbor.

Suspects Arrested in Oklahoma City

The people named in the indictment have been arrested. Two of the arrests were made in Oklahoma City. They are charged with conspiring to bring, transport and conceal undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

The FBI and the U.S. Marshals said they were not part of the raid. News 9 did request a statement from ICE asking if the warrant was served to the wrong people however, we have not heard back.